Juanita Peaches

Features

The fourth business in Raph Rashid’s (Beatbox Kitchen, Taco Truck) fast-food empire is all about fried chicken.

The pale-brick space also houses All Day Donuts. The deep fryers here do double duty, swallowing dough and crisping up chicken in equal measures.

The free-range birds arrive at Juanita whole, to be jointed by Rashid and his crew. This way, the wings actually get a decent bit of meat on them. As with the doughnuts, this will be some of the best fried chicken you’ve eaten in Melbourne. It’s moist, zesty and actually tastes like chicken, rather than last week’s oil. It almost doesn't need the optional honey mustard, chilli vinegar or horseradish cream. But you definitely should try it with them.

Despite this focus, the go-to dish for many is the simply named "cheeseburger". That’s a 120-gram, hand-formed, coffee-rubbed, grass-fed beef patty, confit shallots, American cheese, dill pickles and mustard mayo. It’s served in a steamed potato bun that doesn’t fall apart.

In supporting roles there are fries, burritos and sandwiches. The short breakfast menu includes rice bubbles, tortillas with lamb bacon and a grilled market greens sandwich.

A small fridge is stocked with Rockies sodas, plus cans of Melbourne Bitter and Mornington Pale Ale.